1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a method of obtaining data located within an information network and, more particularly, to a computer system employing software agents for searching, retrieving, evaluating, and presenting information in response to a specified criteria. Throughout the description of the invention the term xe2x80x9csoftware agentxe2x80x9d is meant to encompass mobile, intelligent, semi-autonomous or autonomous computer software programs that utilize computer techniques to duplicate and automate the intelligence of humans, and perform tasks for humans that were heretofore conducted by humans without the aid of computer technology.
2. Description of Related Art
Within the last few years, content-rich computer networks, such as the Internet, in particular the World Wide Web (xe2x80x9cthe Webxe2x80x9d), have been growing at an explosive rate. The amount of information available on the Web is increasing exponentially. Unfortunately, with this exponential increase in information comes a corresponding exponential decrease in the probability of an individual locating all of the information relevant to his needs or interests.
With reference to FIG. 12, in an exemplary Web searching environment, two partiesxe2x80x94a requester looking for a specific item and a provider offering that specific itemxe2x80x94each have a Web site. The requester may be, for example, a computer manufacturer interested in purchasing video boards for his CPUs while the provider is a video board supplier. The most typical way for each of these parties to locate each other on the Internet is through the use of a search engine.
Search engines rely on software agents, i.e., Web robots, to search the Web. A description of various applications for software agents, including search engine applications, is contained in Agent Sourcebook, by A. Caglayan and C. Harrison, Wiley Computer Publishing, Copyright 1997. These Web robots catalog documents and store the information contained within these documents for transmission to the search engine""s parent database where it is categorized and stored. When a search engine is run, the database is searched using keyword search terms provided by the user. A list of uniform resource locators (URLs) matching the search query are presented to the user. The user must then manually enter each of the sites associated with the URLs and determine the relevancy of the network site with respect to the search query.
In the above example, the probability of either the requester or provider finding the other through a search engine is limited for several reasons. First, search engines require continuous active participation by either the provider or the requester. At least one or the other must enter a keyword search criteria, wait for the search engine to provide results and then review the results. If the individual is not satisfied, the process must be repeated with either a new or a refined search criteria. This procedure is both time consuming and tedious and often so frustrating that the party conducting the search terminates the search process before any useful results are obtained.
A second reason for limited success through a search engine is that the breadth of information available through a search engine is necessarily limited to the information within its database. Thus, information relevant to a search criteria that is not located by the Web robot and stored in the search engine""s database cannot be provided to the user. In the above example, the provider A""s site or the requester B""s site may not be cataloged in the search engine being used by the other party, in which case, neither can locate the other. In addition, any requesters and providers, such as C, D, E and F in FIG. 12, which establish Web sites subsequent to a search conducted by a party, would remain unknown to the party unless the search engine search process is repeated.
Hence, those concerned with obtaining information located within an information network have long felt the need for a method of efficiently and actively searching the network for information in response to a search criteria. The need has also been long felt for a method of searching a network without requiring the continued participation of the party on whose behalf the search is being conducted. The present invention clearly fulfills these needs and others.
Briefly, and in general terms, the present invention is directed to a method of actively searching an information network in response to a specified criteria provided by a network user.
In a first aspect, the invention relates to a method of providing an information network user with information contained within at least one of a plurality of network sites in view of a user""s search criteria. In accordance with the present invention, the method includes the steps of providing a database and populating the database with a plurality of other search criteria provided by other network users and a plurality of search strategies. Each of the search strategies includes information regarding network sites likely to contain information relevant to the other search criteria. For example, if one of the other search criteria was related to books on astronomy, the search strategy may involve the search of .edu and .com sites. The method of the present invention also includes the step of linking the other search criteria with the search strategies. Further included are the steps of selecting from the database at least one search strategy based upon the user""s search criteria, executing the at least one search strategy and providing search results to the user.
By cataloging the search criteria of others in a database along with search strategies, linking those strategies with the other search criteria and searching the other search criteria in view of the user""s search criteria, the present invention provides for the sharing of search processes among multiple network users. The sharing of search processes provides increased search efficiency over the prior art search methods which, heretofore, executed each search from scratch, so to speak, without knowledge of any previously conducted searches related to a similar criteria.
In a second aspect, the invention relates to a method of introducing providers and requesters to each other based on a search criteria provided by at least one of the providers and requesters. This method is used within an information network comprising a plurality of provider network sites, each having a provider associated therewith, and a plurality of requester network sites, each having a requester associated therewith. In accordance with the present invention, the method includes the steps of providing a database and populating the database with network site data representative of the content of the network site from a plurality of the requester network sites and provider network sites. The database also includes a plurality of other search criteria provided by other providers and requesters and a plurality of search strategies comprising information regarding network sites likely to contain information relevant to the other search criteria. The method of the present invention also includes the step of linking at least one of the search strategies with at least one of the other search criteria.
To facilitate the introduction of providers and requesters, this aspect of the present invention further includes the step of creating, on behalf of each requester providing requester search criteria, a requester search agent and employing the search agent to search the database for network site data and other search criteria relevant to the requester search criteria. For each relevant other search criteria, the search agent executes the at least one search strategy linked with the other search criteria to search the information network for network sites having data relevant to the requester search criteria and providing search results to said requester.
The present invention further facilitates the introduction of providers and requesters by creating, on behalf of each provider providing provider search criteria, a provider search agent and employing the search agent to search the database for network site data and other search criteria relevant to the provider search criteria. For each relevant other search criteria, the search agents execute the at least one search strategy linked with the other search criteria to search the information network for network sites having data relevant to the provider search criteria and providing search results to the provider.
By employing search agents to actively search the network sites and databases for requester and provider information and to provide the information to interested providers and requesters respectively, in view of search criteria entered by the requesters and providers, the method of the present invention provides automated introduction of requesters and providers.
In third aspect, the invention is related to a method of communicating among a plurality of software agents. Each agent is employed by a user to search an information network comprising a plurality of network sites for information responsive to an individual search criteria. In accordance with the present invention, the method includes the steps of, for each individual search criteria, storing information data relevant to the search criteria in a database, and for each software agent, searching the database for information data relevant to the individual search associated with the software agent.
By storing search criteria information in a database and subsequently searching the database for similar search criteria the present invention provides for the sharing of information among software agents. The sharing of information provides increased search efficiency.
In another aspect, the invention is related to a method of locating data relevant to a search criteria provided by a user. This method finds application in an information network comprising a plurality of network sites. The method includes the steps of providing a database and populating the database with data representative of other search criteria provided by other users. The method further includes the step of populating the database with a plurality of search strategies, each search strategy comprising information regarding network sites likely to contain information relevant to the other search criteria. The method further includes the step of creating a search agent on behalf of the user and employing the search agent to search the database for other search criteria relevant to the user search criteria; for each relevant other search criteria, executing the at least one search strategy linked with the other search criteria to search the information network for network sites having data relevant to the user search criteria and providing search results to the user. In further detailed aspects, the search criteria provided by the user may include text based data, visual image data, audio data and/or audio/visual data.
These and other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate by way of example the features of the invention.